If You Died Tomorrow...

As a group of us sat around soaking up rays on the beach, the conversation suddenly turned heavy.

"Do you believe there's an afterlife?"

I'm not sure who posed the question, but one woman shared she didn't think her belief system thought there was.

The first thing that struck me about her statement was that she wasn't owning an opinion. Her belief system didn't think there was a heaven or hell. No mention of her personal feelings or convictions. And no real understanding of her "faith." I would think where a belief system comes down on afterlife would be a pretty big deal. Like the crux of why you chose to believe the way they do.

Perhaps she was afraid to engage the thought. Like me, she has breast cancer. But hers was far more advanced, and she had made a comment earlier that if all she read was to be believed, she only had about 2 1/2 years to live.

Often times it seems when a person gets a potentially deadly disease such as cancer, the human default is to look at how much time remains...as if a "healthy" life is given some sort of guarantee.

The truth is we're all dying a little each day, and no one knows how or when their end will come. Forget the natural aging process, we need only turn on the television to see the daily dangers of this world that befall young and old alike.

I don't mean to sound morbid or depressing, but as the saying goes, there are only two sure things in this life - death and taxes.

Another woman spoke up. "Well, we (she mentioned her denomination) believe that there is an afterlife and our soul...or is it our spirit?...might go on to heaven, but we don't really know for sure how that happens."

With that, the first woman's phone rang and she queried the person on the other end about the afterlife question.

"My friend says 'it's too complicated for her to explain.'"

Now she was on a mission. She decided to text the wife of her religious leader. Unfortunately, his wife was also unable to give her an answer.

My heart was breaking for this woman who was dealing with death daily but had no hope of anything more than the grave. I spoke up. "I do believe there's life after this one, and" I looked toward the other woman, "I do think we can have certainty about it."

"The thief on the cross was told by Christ 'Today you will be with me in paradise.' Christ is clearly stating that after death there is a place we can go that is akin to paradise and that going there is immediate."

I pressed on "and it's not complicated either. God told us that all we had to do was believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that He died to save us from our sins. Accept the free gift of salvation and get into heaven. The minute you pass from this life."

The last thing I did was recount a conversation I had with a friend years earlier. She was Jewish by birth, but practiced Buddhism. She had made the comment that our beliefs - my Christianity and her Buddhism - were pretty much alike because we both believed in good deeds and loving people. I knew there was more to Christianity, but I didn't know much about her beliefs, so I asked her to enlighten me.

She explained that she believed people were born perfect, messed up along the way, then spent the rest of their time through reincarnation trying to get back to that perfection. With that explanation, I now had the ability to formulate a better answer to her earlier statement.

"Yes, we love people and believe in doing good deeds, but our beliefs aren't the same. I believe that people aren't born perfect, they are born flawed because of sin. There is only one way to rectify that - by accepting that Christ is perfect and died as a sacrifice for my sins. When I believe that, I don't have to spend the rest of my life trying to do things to earn perfection. Salvation is a free gift, and I'd much rather get it free and know I'm going to heaven then spend eternity hoping that I do just the right thing to earn a spot in Nirvana."

The ladies nodded seeming to understand the explanation, but then things got quiet and the subject was changed to where to have dinner that evening. Jesus will make people uncomfortable. In 1 Peter 2:7 Peter describes Christ as the stone the builders rejected that has become the cornerstone. He goes on in verse 8 to say "and, 'A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.' They stumble because they disobey the message - which is also what they were destined for."

One thing I didn't mention was that just as sure as there's a heaven, there's a hell. The Bible talks of a lake of fire, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, ever lasting destruction shut off from the presence of the Lord.

The group didn't revisit the discussion again, but I hope what I said planted a seed of discontent for the non-answers the one woman was receiving from her belief system and teachers. And I hope it gave the woman without certainty of what happens to gain entrance to heaven, a place to begin asking questions.

As I said, none of us know the hour or day our life will end, but we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt where we will be the moment it happens. I can't imagine not living with that surety, especially in light of a life-threatening disease.

It would have been easy to sit silently and listen to the conversation around me. To not "rock the boat," or risk the political incorrectness of challenging someone's beliefs, especially people I barely knew.

But I couldn't hold back information that could save a life even if I only had time to plant the seed. I pray for these women and that God would use others who cross their path to water and harvest.

If you have a personal relationship with Christ, are you letting others in on the Good News? People are dying - literally and figuratively - not having what you have.

And if you don't yet know Jesus personally, there is no better time than right now to accept Him as your Savior and Lord so you can share in the certainty of an eternal life in heaven.

Don't know how? Romans 10:9-10 explains it simply: "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in  your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."

Life is too hard and too short not to have hope of more...and better.